Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 502 94 Xunyang full of Jingzhan -2

On the fort guarded by the Baoyi Army, Zhao Xingde was watching the battle under the guard of the generals.A township herald rushed over and said, "General Zhao, Wang Tongzhi invited our army and the former army to attack the enemy's camp together."

Before Zhao Xingde could answer, Lu Mingyu and Luo Xianshi suddenly changed their colors.Although Yue Fei is a privy envoy, Yue, Han, and Zhao are equal in terms of fame and status.Even if it is necessary for the Baoyi Army to coordinate their advance, it should be proposed by Yue Fei in a deliberative tone.Although Wang Gui is Yue Fei's right-hand man, he is not qualified to sit on an equal footing with Zhao Xingde.Ever since the Baoyi Army entered Shuzhou, Wang Gui, Zhang Xian and other generals under Yue Fei's tent frequently wrote directly to Zhao Xingde, as if they regarded themselves and Zhao Xingde as the generals under Yue Fei's tent.Perhaps it was because Yue Fei didn't pay much attention to these "details". In order to command a smooth battle, Yue Fei temporarily organized most of the infantry in the town as a front army, led by Wang Gui, and led by Zhang Xian. Weiying and Yang Zaixing's Tabai battalion formed the central army. The Baoyi army led by Zhao Xingde was temporarily named Zuojun, Han Shizhonghengjun was named Right Army, and Niu Gao led some townsmen and volunteers from prefectures and counties as the rear army.Although this bugle number and establishment are only temporary, they have already aroused dissatisfaction among the generals of the Baoyi Army.Wang Gui himself invited Zhao Xingde to send troops together, which aroused the anger of the generals.

"Even if we want to join forces to send troops, it's still for Privy Yue's face," Lu Mingyu shouted, "Wang Gui is what?" He glared at the flag officer who came to pass the order with his evil spirit.

The banner officer was also stubborn, he just knelt on the ground and respected Zhao Xingde, he didn't look at Lu Mingyu, although he didn't refute it because of the difference in dignity, but he was arrogant.This move made Lu Mingyu even more annoyed, and he said to Zhao Xingde: "Commander, this Wang Gui is someone who uses tiger skin as a banner, we can't listen to him."

Looking at the battlefield, Zhao Xingde saw that the back-wei battalion pierced through the enemy's formation several times. The Liao army was defeated, and the cavalry in the rear also seemed timid. It was obvious that the enemy's army was shaken.He lowered his head, looked at the suppressing officer lying on the ground, and asked gently: "Let our army cooperate with the former army to attack, can there be a general order from Privy Yue?"

The banner officer didn't dare to look up, but bit the bullet and said: "The end general doesn't know."

"I don't know you're still here to deliver orders?" Lu Mingyu became angry on the spot, and said coldly, "Falsely passing military orders is a capital offense!" All the generals clamored.Many of the generals of the Baoyi Army were bandits recruited by Zhao'an, while the generals of the Suppression Army were from the camp in the southeast.Normally, the generals of the Baoyi Army think that they can sit on an equal footing with Zhang Xian, Wang Gui and others, but Zhang Xian and other suppressing generals treat them rather aggressively. Lu Mingyu and others have long held back their anger. , erupted like a volcano.

Zhao Xingde raised his hand to stop the clamor of the generals, and said in a deep voice: "Since that's the case, let's wait for our army to ask Yue Shumi to fight, and line up with the former army to attack and defeat the enemy." The ** officer was horrified and moved.

Hitting the enemy one after the other is the ancestral tactic of the Song army to control cavalry with steps.The infantry formation is divided into two parts, front and rear. The front formation attacks sharply and entangles the enemy cavalry, while the rear formation supports each other and surrounds the enemy cavalry.Since the Taizu Dynasty, when the Song army went out of the city to fight in the field, most of them used this method of warfare to control cavalry with steps.However, the army is divided into front and rear formations, and the mutual trust between the two generals is extremely high. If there is mutual suspicion, the front formation will not be able to advance, and it is easy to delay the opportunity of the battle. .Wang Gui, the former commander of the army, asked Zhao Xingde to join forces to send troops. He did not plan to attack the enemy in front and back. Instead, the two armies were divided into left and right wings and attacked the Liao army camp at the same time.In this way, no one has to worry about who is stumbling behind.

The flag officer quickly reported the Baoyi army to the battle, Yue Fei asked what was going on, knew the story, thought for a moment, and agreed to Zhao Xingde's tactics.Ling Wang Guisuo led more than [-] infantry from the front army to form the front line, and more than [-] infantry from the Baoyi Army to form the rear line.In this way, the goal of the battle is to severely damage the main force of the enemy's cavalry, rather than simply attacking the camp.

"Yue Shuai asked General Zhao to put state affairs first, and not to argue with Wang Tongzhi. After this battle, Wang Tongzhi should come to plead guilty."

On the other hand, Yue Fei also sent a banner officer to inform Wang Gui of the latest dispatch, ordering him to commit crimes and meritorious deeds, and immediately sent troops to attack the enemy's camp.

Zhao Xingde nodded, and said to the banner officer: "Report to Privy Councilor Yue, the Baoyi Army will go through fire and water, and will never turn back."

The generals around looked at each other, Luo Xianshi smiled and said: "Wang Guisu is arrogant and looks down on us. This time, tell him to hand over his back to our army. Do you want to scare him?" Lu Mingyu nodded , and echoed: "In the eyes of Wang Tongzhi, which onion are you? He can pack 6000 cavalry with [-] men. In fact, we don't need to worry about it at all." The two men sang together, and the faces of the generals showed Smiling, seeing Zhao Xingde's eyes were slightly stern, he just stopped talking and did not continue to ridicule the former army.Zhao Xingde immediately ordered all the battalions to assemble, put on neat clothes, and be ready to attack at any time to support the former army and wipe out the enemy.The generals didn't dare to be negligent, and went back to dispatch troops one after another. Not long after, more than [-] infantry marched behind the artillery fortress, and with the help of the artillery fortress, the whole army stood by.

The commander-in-chief's order came down again, Wang Gui no longer hesitated, and immediately commanded the front army to press forward.More than 400 infantry have already been lined up, and each of the suppressors commanded more than 100 soldiers, of which [-] were gunners with firecrackers, and the other [-] were gunners with long-handled axes and hooks.This kind of organization is very convenient for cavalry to shoot from far and near.This is something that the Zhen army gradually discovered in the battle with the cavalry of the Liao army since the Shuzhou confrontation.Each commanded five hundred soldiers in a small formation, forming a total of twelve square formations, with spearmen and long axemen on the periphery.Usually, before approaching the enemy, the various small formations will gather into a thick large square formation to resist the impact of the cavalry. However, as the army slowly presses forward, the distance between the small command formations of the suppressing army is not the slightest. shrinking trend.

"Strange, what does Wang Gui mean?" Luo Xianshi murmured.After a while, not only did the commanders of the township not approach each other and become one, the small formations on the outside did not move, but the commanders inside were divided into two, with only more than 200 soldiers in each formation.The generals of the town are usually well practiced, exactly twenty small square formations, the military flags are fluttering and the military appearance is neat, moving forward slowly as if the sky is full of stars, it is really beautiful, and it is better than the review of the front office of the Bianliang suburban hall a bit.

Zhao Xingde's face showed surprise, although the generals were not proficient in military art, they could still see that something was wrong.

"Does Wang Gui want to seek death?" Lu Mingyu shook his head and said, "Or are you out of your mind?" A formation commanding infantry could hardly withstand the onslaught of Liao army cavalry.To deal with cavalry, the infantry formation has always been the more troops, the thicker the better, how can the troops be divided so thinly?The Baoyi army and the Zhen army were sitting on the same boat, the truth was cold, the generals didn't care to ridicule Wang Gui for not knowing the soldiers, all of them had a look of worry on their faces, and they wanted to rush forward to teach Wang Gui how to fight.

"This is a sparse formation." Zhao Xingde thought for a while, and finally recognized it: "This is the sparse formation in Sun Tzu's Art of War."

"Sparse array?" Lu Mingyu wondered.

"Exactly." Zhao Xingde's eyes were a bit complicated, and he muttered secretly, "If Wang Gui has practiced this formation by himself, it doesn't matter if he wants to sit on an equal footing with me and Han Henghai." Formation and circular formation are easy to practice but difficult to master. Generally speaking, sparse formation is only used to boost momentum when the number of troops is small. However, if the sparse formation is well practiced, it will have a miraculous effect of restraining the enemy's elite advance.In the past, Han Xin set up an ambush formation on ten sides, exhausting the vigor of the Chu army, which evolved from the sparse formation.

As far as the facts are concerned, if the Song army fought against the Liao army with a large formation intact, the cavalry of the Liao army would wander outside the large formation.However, if we meet the enemy with a sparse formation, the cavalry of the Liao army will have to go deep into the large formation of the Song army. With the cooperation of the formation, even if the main force of the Liao army is cavalry, it will be very difficult to escape, and heavy casualties are inevitable.It's just that the infantry used sparse formations to deal with the cavalry, and it was either a big victory or a disastrous defeat.Those who can really support the cavalry's left and right rush are all rare strong soldiers in ancient and modern times. More often, they can't do porcelain work without gold steel drills.Ordinary infantry scattered into formations, can only drink hatred under the iron hooves of healthy horses.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xingde's eyes couldn't help becoming serious, and he said to Luo Xianshi and Lu Mingyu, "You wait to rectify your subordinates. If the front army is in a tight spot, we must rush to rescue them." The generals also knew that this matter was not a joke, They all solemnly took orders and went down to prepare.Because the artillery barracks blocked the view, the generals could not see the battle situation at the front even when they were riding on horseback. They only marched and retreated under the banner of Zhao Xingde above the artillery barracks.

In the middle of the river, on the tower of the huge ship, Han Shizhong was also observing the situation on the battlefield with binoculars. Seeing that the Zhen army was approaching the Liao army camp in a sparse formation, he turned around and said to the general beside him: "The Zhen army has such a big appetite. You are all optimistic, this battle is not easy. The leader must be Wang Gui, so I would like to learn from others."

On the Liao army camp, Temuge lightly sent off the defeated cavalry general.Although the cavalry of the Song people was powerful, their numbers were pitifully small. No matter how fierce the leopards were, they were no match for the pack of wolves.Most of this Liao army came from various ministries on the grassland. Hearing what he said, the morale of the army was also encouraged.In the decisive battle on the prairie, only cavalry was emphasized. As for the slowly approaching infantry of the Song army, everyone ignored it.

Brother Tiemu smiled to the left and right: "This Nanmanzi went crazy just after winning a game. Such a loose formation, what is it if it is not death? In Hedong, in Hebei, there are much thicker formations than this. I have seen it all, come, kill all these guys who are dying!"